Westin Grand Bohemian
The Westin Grand Bohemian was a proposed 14-story luxury hotel to be located on the site of the Birmingham Board of Education Building at the northeast corner of 20th Street and Park Place across the street from Linn Park. The project ultimately stalled and subsequently was canceled after the Birmingham Board of Education decided to not sell the property for the proposed development.
The proposal initially surfaced in April 2004 when the Orlando-based hotel operator The Kessler Collection announced they were looking to construct an eight-story, 250 room hotel on the site of the Education Building. The following October, Kessler formally announced it was ready to invest $50 million to construct a 14-story hotel with approximately 200 rooms at the Education Building site. To be branded as the Westin Grand Bohemian, the final project was to include at least one restaurant, a lounge, large ballroom, exercise facility and both commercial and retail space. Its overall design was to be modeled after the Westin Grand Bohemian in Orlando, also owned by Kessler.
References
- Tomberlin, Michael and Barnett Wright. (April 27, 2004) "Hotel chain eyes Linn Park location." Birmingham News
- Tomberlin, Michael. (October 9, 2004) "High-end downtown hotel planned." Birmingham News
- Leech, Marie and Joseph D. Bryant. (December 8, 2007) "Mayor wants schools office leveled." Birmingham News